Process of manufacturing typographical blocks.



PATENTED JUNE 13. 1905.

. G. H. CALMBLS.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING TYPOGRAPHICAL BLOCKS.

, APPLICATION FILED AUG. 19, 1901.

UNITED STATES Patented. June 13, 1905.

PATENT ()EEICE.

GEORGES HENRI (JALMELS, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 792,313, dated June 13, 1905.

Application filed August 19, 1901. Serial No. 72,522.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGES HENRI CAL- MELS, a citizen of the French Republic, and a resident of Paris, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin the Processes of Manufacturing Typographical Blocks, of which the following isa statement.

The object of the present invention consists in a process for the manufacture of metal plates, (chiefly zinc,) enabling any one to produce typographical blocks capable of being printed under any press, including the most rapid rotary machines.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan view of a typographic block constructed in accordance with my invention. Figs. 2 and 3 are respectively a plan and vertical sectional view, on an enlarged scale, illustrating one step in the manufacture of the block. Fig. at is a sectional view similar to Fig. 3, illustrating the condition of the plate at another step in its manufacture. Fig. 5 is a sectional view, on the same scale as Figs. 2, 3, and I, of a portion of the completed block.

In carrying out my invention I first provide the printing-surface of the block with a series of minute indentations or depressions, which are afterward filled with a material which will resist the action of the etching solution applied to said surface after the desired design has been drawn thereon. Such indenting or stippling of the printing-surface may be accomplished in either of several ways. According to one method I take a sheet of zinc of quality and thickness appropriate for typographical purposes. I pass this metal in a bath composed of water one thousand cubic centimeters and nitric acid twenty-five cubic centimeters in order to obtain a perfectly clean surface and by lithographic or photographic methods I transfer onto the plate a tint produced by cross-lines or any other, forming sections which after having been sub mitted to the usual operations is subjected to the action of any suitable etching solution which attacks the spaces between the lines and forms a series of depressions or hollows in the plate-surface. After such etching the hollow dots or depressions formed thereby are filled in with an acid-resisting metal, such as dArcet metal, amixture of tin,(onekilogran1,) lead, (one kilogram,) and bismuth, (two kilograms.) This metal is poured over the plate,

filling the aforesaid depressions therein, and is securely soldered or united to said plate. Instead of stippling or forming the depressions in the printing-surface of the plate in the manner above described the plate may be subjected to the action of a suitable machine having a cylinder or roll provided with a raised stipple which will produce corresponding indentations in the plate when passed thereover, or the plate may be cast in a suitable mold or stamped with a suitable stamp to provide the desired depressions or indentations. After the indentations or depressions, produced in any suitable manner, have been filled with the dArcet metal in the manner above described the plate is cleaned and polished to remove any of said dArcet metal which may have adhered to the spaces between the depressions that have been filled with said metal. On plates thus prepared the subject or design to be produced by the typographical block can be drawn direct with lithographic ink or with any other acid-resisting liquid or can be transferred by any ordinary photographic or lithographic transfer process. The plates after having received the subject by means of any one of the said methods undergo an etching which destroys the Zinc, leaving untouched the subject, as also the dots, which are composed of an acid-resisting metal. The resulting plate will therefore present in relief the subject which has been drawn or transferred to the plate and also a stippled or dotted background composed of the projecting points of dArcet metal, giving an effect similar to a half-tone block. Hence at this stage I have obtained a typographical block which according to its preparation with large or small sections (or dots) and according to the subject on it transferred being of more or less fine lines will print with remarkable clearness under high or low speed presses.

Referring to to the accompanying drawings, A indicates the metal forming the body of the plate, preferably zinc. The depressions or indentations formed in said plate by either of the fnethods herein described are designated B in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, which figures represent the plate after it has been stippled or indented and before the indentations therein have been filled with the dArcet metal. After said dArcet metal has been applied to the plate it will appear as shown in Fig. 4, in which the upper surface of the plate will consist of alternating sections of the body A and dArcet metal 0. After the plate has been finally etched the dArcetmetal sections G will appear in relief, as shown in Fig. 5, and the entire plate will be as represented in Fig. 1that is, the design will be surrounded by a stippled or dotted background composed of the projecting sections C of dArcet metal, which are not affected by the etching solution that removes the exposed portions of the body-plate A.

The mounting of the blocks is done in the ordinary way.

The above described process gives only blocks having a regular tinted background to becutsquare,oval,round,orofanyothershape. If, however, it becomes desirable to produce a vignetted block, the shape desired and all parts to be kept should be covered with stopping-out varnish and strong etch be given, which would completely destroy the tinted background, giving the plate the necessary depth to be mounted and print without difliculty.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The process of producing typographic blocks as herein set forth, which consists in subjecting a sheet of zinc to a bath of dilute nitric acid, forming minute depressions in said zinc sheet, then filling said depressions with dArcet metal, and finally scraping and polishing the surface in which said depressions have been made to form the surface for the typographical etching, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGES HENRI CALMELS.

Witnesses:

ADoLPH STURM, EDWARD P. MAGLEAN. 

